A need has existed to adjust color and dot gain of a binary bitmap file and image the bitmap file with the correct dot gain quickly and efficiently. The present invention is designed to use a filter to change the binary image into an images with a set of discrete “n” levels. A need has long existed for a method for adjusting the dot gain when creating color proofs from binary bitmaps.
In a digital printing workflow there is a need to be able to proof the bitmap files being used to make the printing plates. In the current process the customer artwork consisting of contone images, line work, and text, is first sent to a digital halftone proofer or inkjet printer. The artwork is corrected until the proof is approved for the press. In the case were the artwork is proofed on a digital halftone proofer such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,164,742, a raster image processor (RIP) adjusts the input continuous tone data using a calibration dot gain curve such that the tone-scale of the proof matches the tone-scale of the press-sheet. After the proof is approved the job is sent to a second RIP that applies a second dot gain curve for generating the plate used in the press run. The first and second RIPs are preferably the same type and version such that the halftone dots created and algorithms used by each device are an exact match. Many times the two RIPs do not match exactly. Sometimes incorrect dot gain correction files are used. Sometimes the artwork is changed between creating the proof and the plates and the press run no longer matches the approved proof.
Another disadvantage in the current system is that an error in the creation of the bitmaps for printing is not known until the plates are loaded onto the press and the press run is started. For a press capable of over 1,000 impressions per hour a considerable amount of production is lost if the plates are found to be corrupt and need to be remade.
An important aspect in creating a halftone proof is predicting dot gain or tone-scale. Dot gain is a known phenomenon attributable to ink spread, ink absorption by the print media, and optical effects between the ink and the paper. The dot gain varies with the size and shape of the halftone dots, the printing device, the inks, and the paper used, etc. For a digital proof, halftone dots in a color separation are composed of micro-pixels that give the halftone dot its shape and size. Dot gain for a digital proof corresponds to increasing dot size by adding micro-pixels. Dot loss for a digital proof corresponds to decreasing dot size by eliminating micro-pixels. Dot gain correction consists of adding and subtracting micro-pixels to match the response at different percent dot inputs.
In the printer described by U.S. Pat. No. 5,164,742 many steps are required to match the press. First, the exposure for each color plane is adjusted to match the solid area density. Second, the dot gain for each color plane is adjusted to achieve a dot gain match at different halftone tint levels. Third, the dot gain curves and density levels may be fine-tuned to achieve either a good neutral match in the three-color overprints or a specific color match such as a flesh tone. For some work other memory colors such as green grass or light blue sky may be matched as the critical color. Finally, the dot gain curves may be further adjusted to deliver better performance in the highlight, or shadow areas. These steps are critical and typically take many iterations between the proof operator and the customer to achieve the look that the customer desires. It is important to be able to adjust the proofer to achieve an acceptable appearance as there are other controls on the press that may be adjusted to affect the dot gain and tonal control of the press run. By adjusting the performance of the proofer, the customer is selecting the quality of the proofs that will be used by the pressmen to match.
Once the proofer has been setup to match the press, the customer uses subsequent proofs to setup the press. This is an important point. The proofer setup is used to simulate the press such that the pressman may then use the proofs to setup the press to achieve the customer's intent. Every job going through the proofer will be adjusted with a setup. There may be different setups for each press or press type. There may also be different setups for different customers using the same proofer. Finally, there may also be standard setups that are used to simulate jobs across many different presses.
The same job is typically ripped again when going to press. This time the RIP is programmed to generate 50% area coverage on plate for the 50% color input. The press is then run to deliver a fixed amount of gain at the 50% input level. Dot gain is due to the smearing of the ink from the plate to a blanket, the smearing of ink from the blanket to the job paper, and the optical gain of the ink on top of the paper. The control is usually split between the plate-making device delivering 50% area coverage for a 50% input, and the press delivering 50% plus its intrinsic dot gain. Typical dot gain levels for a web-fed offset press are 15% to 25% at the 50% input level. Because the dot gain occurs on the press instead of at the plate writer the bitmaps used to create the plate will not contain enough gain to make the proof. Proofs made from these bitmaps will be washed out and the contrast will be significantly reduced. Colors will also shift, as the gain in each color will be proportional to the dot area coverage.
Other digital halftone printing devices such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,204,874 use a binary proofing media that does not allow for adjusting the density level of the solid colorants. A different process is used to adjust these devices for a close press match, including adjusting the tone-scale or dot gain curve used to make the bitmap file. However, the ideal dot gain curve on these systems is still different from the dot gain curves used to make the plates. Even if the same machine is imaging the plate and the proof as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,204,874.
Inkjet printing devices are also sometimes used to make a proof. These devices typically image from 300 dpi to 1440 dpi writing resolutions using multiple cyan, magenta, yellow, and sometimes black inks. In addition software such as “Best Screen Proof” available from Best GmbH, or Black Magic available from Serendipity Software Pty. Ltd., may be used to simulate the printing of a halftone screen. This software attempts to measure the halftone screen and adjust the printed output to achieve a close color match to a given target. Resolution of the inkjet devices does not allow for a good match of the halftone dot structure. The color match developed does simulate the tone-scale or dot gain correction, but only through the driving of the overlapping colors on the proof. The quality of the halftone in the printed proof is significantly compromised. Dots in the highlight and shadow areas are destroyed in trying to match the overall density level in these systems. This is because the inkjet output drops are too large. Therefore, one inkjet drop is used to replace many halftone dots in the highlight or bright areas, while one inkjet hole is used to replace many halftone holes in the shadows.
A halftone screen at 150 lines per inch, six lines per mm, covers an area of approximately 28,674 um2. An inkjet printer with a 3 pL drop size will produce a dot with a diameter of about 25 um covering an area of 625 um2. This may vary depending upon the spread into the paper. A single inkjet drop represents a 2.18% change in area within a 150-line screen halftone. To achieve finer resolution the Best Screen Proof, and Black Magic software use additional inks to image multi-level colorants. Typically a light cyan and light magenta ink are added to the cyan, magenta, yellow, and black primaries to achieve finer control of the tone-scale. While this creates a proof with a close visual color match, the structure of the halftone dots within the image is seriously degraded.
A conventional proofing solution, for example a direct digital color halftone Proofer, processes the file for proofing at 2540 dpi separate from ripping the file for printing, adding dot gain to the proofing file as part of the ripping process. U.S. Pat. No. 5,255,085 discloses a method to adjust the tone reproduction curve of a press or output printer. This creates a target from the press or desired output proof, benchmarks the characteristics of the proofing device, and generates a lookup table to adjust the dot gain of the original file to achieve the aim on the proofing device. U.S. Pat. No. 5,293,539 adds adaptive process values to interpolate between measured benchmark and aim data sets to calibrate the dot gain tone-scale curve at other screen rulings, screen angles, and dot shapes. Utilizing these techniques to modify the dot gain curves and hence the tone-scale curves of the proofing device increases the chances for error. The input file and its subsequent components must be available for both RIPs. The same versions of each file and components must be specified. The same fonts must be available for both RIPs. The correct dot gain curve must be specified at both RIPs. The chances for error to occur increase with each ripping operation, especially when the RIPs are located at separate sites.
Ripping the file twice is also time consuming. Each RIP operation must read the input files, decide where each of the components is to be placed in the output print, convert continuous tone images using the correct dot gain curve into high resolution halftones, render text and line work, and output a high resolution bitmap which represents the composite image. This is repeated for each color in the output print.
The current direct digital color halftone proofers implement dot gain by modifying the code values being printed through a curve prior to converting the code values into the halftone bitmap with the RIP. The dot gain is only applied to the continuous tone image data and not the line work or text. The dot gain may be adjusted for each of the primary colors cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. A dot gain curve may also be specified for spot colors orange, green, red, blue, white, and metallic. A dot gain curve may also be specified for a recipe color that is imaged using a single bitmap in combination of two or more standard colors at unique exposure levels. A dot gain curve may also be specified for each colorant within a recipe color. In this last case more than one bitmap is used, however the halftone dots are at the same screen ruling, screen angle, and phase, such that each halftone dot in each color substantially overlap.
The dot area is calculated using the Murray-Daives Equation, defined in ANSI/CGATS, 4-1993, 1993, p. 7. Equation 1. Murray-Daives Equation to calculate percent dot area.PercentArea=(10−Dtint−10−Dpaper)/(10−Dsolid−10−Dpaper).
A typical example is that a target curve is known. Such a target might specify that the 50% cyan halftone should print at 67%, the 25% cyan halftone should print at 35%, and the 75% cyan halftone should print at 80%. A benchmark proof is then run and measured. Measurement may be taken at 30%, 60%, and 79% cyan dot area coverage at the 25%, 50%, and 75% input levels. A dot gain adjustment curve is then created to add the correct amount to cyan to achieve the target values at the target inputs. For instance in this example, an output value of 35% was achieved at an input level of 30% in the benchmark proof. Therefore, a 5% dot gain at the 25% input level was added to achieve the 35% target. At the 50% level the target level of 67% was achieved at an input level of 57% requiring an added 7% at the 50% input. At the 75% level the 80% target at the 76% input requiring 1% dot gain was achieved. In actual practice, the dot gain in 5% or 10% steps was measured with some additional measurements between 0 to 10% and 90 to 100%. A spline curve is usually fit to the resulting dot gain curve to provide a table in 1% input increments or less. Smoothing is sometimes performed on the input target and benchmark data to further reduce artifacts in the adjustment process.
Perup Oskofot has shown a software program, which operates on high resolution scans from their scanners. The program takes a binary high-resolution scan of a halftone film and de-screens it to a lower resolution continuous tone image. Typically the scan resolution is 2400 dpi. The resulting continuous tone image may be 8-bits per pixel at 300 dpi resolution. A dot gain curve is then applied to the de-screened image. The adjusted image is then reripped to a bitmap image at 2400 dpi. One problem with this method is that it requires a reripping step. To accomplish this requires a RIP. Knowledge of what the original halftone screen shape, screen ruling, and screen angle are necessary in order to faithfully reproduce it with the re-ripping step. Another problem is that all RIPs are not the same. There are subtle differences between them such as the method that they use to add noise to hide the quantization affects in screening the image. This means that one RIP may not sufficiently reproduce all the screens that the customer might digitize. Another problem with this method is that it is extremely slow. A small 8×10 inch image at 2400 dpi scanned resolution may take more than an hour to process a single color plane.
Additionally, some customers have halftone films, which they would like to use in their digital workflow. These customers scan the film at a high resolution, 100 pixels/mm, and quantize each pixel to a binary value. Because the dot gain is built into the film, there is no method other than de-screening the bitmap file, adding dot gain, and reripping the file, to calibrate the output print. If the original film was made using an optical technique then the dot shape, screen ruling, and screen angle may not be an exact match to a digital RIP. De-screening and re-screening the high-resolution scan may not faithfully reproduce the original screens.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,250,934 discloses a method of shifting and adding a bitmap image with itself to thin the image displayed. U.S. Pat. No. 5,250,934 also discloses a method of setting a bit to an intermediate level if it is diagonally between two active bits using shifting logical.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,483,351 discloses using a 4×4 input to a lookup table to determine how to operate on the central 2×2 pixels to implement half bit or full bit dilation and erosion. U.S. Pat. No. 5,483,351 has the advantage of knowing some of the surrounding pixels in deciding how to dilate or erode the pixels in the center.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,258,854 teaches how to resize bitmap images in small amounts less than one full bit in size. U.S. Pat. No. 5,680,485 also discloses logically combining two morphological filter pairs and an original image to create an output image. The morphological filters described are erosion filters, one of which has less erosion than desired and the other having more erosion than desired. Logically combining combinations of the original image with the two eroded images provides for a method of obtaining an intermediate result.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,208,871 describes a method of resizing an input bitmap in. U.S. Pat. No. 5,208,871 simulates a scan of an output image from an input bitmap such that the scan resolution is different from the input bitmap. Error diffusion is utilized to quantize the output bitmap into the desired output bit resolution. This example uses error diffusion to spread out the error in the quantization of a multilevel pixel into a reduced number of output states.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,115,140 uses a de-screened version of an original image, and dilated and eroded versions of the original image to select a combination of the original, dilated, and eroded images to effect a dot gain or tone-scale change in an input bitmap image. U.S. Pat. No. 6,115,140, FIG. 5B, shows an original halftone image input into block HI along with an eroded version (HE), and two dilated versions (HD1 and HD2). Then a weight based on de-screened versions of the original halftone (CO), the color corrected original (CI), the eroded original (CE), and the two dilated originals (CD1 and CD2) is calculated. The de-screened images are used to select which of the four halftone images, HI, HE, HD1, and HD2, are transferred into H1 and H2. The weighting function is then used to merge bitmap versions of H1 and H2 together into the tone-scaled output bitmap (HO). How to de-screen is not disclosed, nor exactly how to calculate which bit of H1 and H2 is used to drive the output bit HO. The need to use error diffusion to distribute the error in selecting between H1 and H2 is not mentioned.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,630,125 dilation is described as growing a single pixel completely around the halftone feature. A second dilation grows two pixels completely around the halftone feature. Similarly erosion subtracts a single pixel completely around the halftone feature.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,630,125 does not teach how to perform de-screening. Roetling performs de-screening by comparing the number of white and dark pixels within a specified area in U.S. Pat. No. 4,630,125. U.S. Pat. No. 4,630,125 also states “A partial solution known in the art is to spatially filter the halftone image with a low pass filter.” U.S. Pat. No. 4,630,125 teaches that the spatial filter method is not exact as it tends to blur the original image.
All of the above techniques adjust the dot gain of the binary bitmap files by adding or subtracting micro-pixels. This changes the size of the halftone features in the bitmaps.
Thus, there exists a need for optimizing the process of adding dot gain while maintaining dot fidelity. A system that adds dot gain to the bitmaps used to make the printing plates and proofs these bitmaps so that the press-sheets made with same printing plates are known prior to running the plates on press does not exist.